The Black Tides of Heaven

I'm reading the Tensorate novellas as part of the SFFBookClub's "sequel month". I've read this once upon a time in the past, but haven't read the other three yet.

I enjoyed this book a good bit, but mostly as a setup for future novellas. This book follows twins Mokoya and Akeha who are under the thumb of their mother the head of the Protectorate. Thematically, the book is about resisting the will of fate, against prophetic visions that Mokoya has but also arguably against the inexorable will of their mother. It's also a story of the resistance of common people against the will of an empire that controls magic.

I think the novella does a lot of work of worldbuilding and characterization in its short length. If I had any criticism, it's that it is much more focused on hitting emotional beats than about narrative beats. The sections skip through time as Mokoya and Akeha grow up to give a picture of their story, but the plot itself meanders and feels disjointed. Emotionally, the final scenes all hit their mark but the worldbuilding historical details and plot were not as tight as I wanted and left me wanting to know more about how we arrived at each moment.

There were some fun gender bits to this world that I quite enjoyed. In this world, kids grow up ungendered and puberty is postponed with magic. At some point, children choose to "be confirmed" in a particular (binary) gender which also involves some magic rearranging of their body. It's certainly a trans dream to have choose-your-own-puberty. It's an interesting choice to me as well that this world (so far?) also seems to prioritize binary gender as an expected outcome for all children. One character who has chosen not to be confirmed seems to have some shame (or at least expect criticism) for deciding to do that.

I'll be interested to see if the binary gender focus is due to the focus of this particular novella (maybe this is a cultural part of this protectorate region or time period) or if the friction against non-binary identities and bodies is an ongoing piece of the rest of the novellas. (Given that Neon Yang is themselves non-binary, it certainly feels to me like an exploration of this friction rather than some unfortunate authorial view.)

I really wanted to like this: I am a big fan of what Aliette de Bodard does with traditional Vietnamese influences both in her Xuya Universe and her Dominion of the Fallen series, so this one, with its Wǔxíng based magic system (Chinese, not Vietnamese version) looked great, and challenging Western binary gender representation is a bonus. One of my students recently did her graduation film on queer identity in a German-Vietnamese context, queer reclaimed Guanyin and all, so you could say this ticked boxes.

Unluckily, the novel is hamstrung by a meandering plot, shallow characterisation and haphazard world-building, with a magic-reinforced version of Imperial Chinese authority sitting smack in the middle of an otherwise unexplained technological revolution. As a piece of fantastic literature, this is simply not that interesting, I’m sorry to say (how good a novel of queer identity it is, I can’t tell, being as a heterosexual cis guy not qualified to judge; it certainly seems to resonate with some people).

Second read through: quite excellent. Better the second time around!

Something I hadn't remembered from the first read is the cool background on the title of the book, specifically this quote about free-will roughly 2/3 through the book:

"No matter what we did, her visions happened anyway. Future events can be set in stone. Where is your free will in that?"

Yongcheow folded careful hands over his belly. "But in those cases, you did do something, didn't you? You went to find the new Head Abbot. Your mother's purging Machinists. Some things might be fixed, but everything around then can be changed. That's the part that counts."

"A test. That's the Obedient belief, isn't it? Everything is a test from the heavens."

A considered silence shimmered. Then Yongcheow spoke. "The saying goes, 'The black tides of heaven direct the courses of human lives.' To which a wise teacher said, 'But as with all waters, one can swim against the tide.'"

The Protector is ruling the Empire with a protective but iron hand, crushing any who oppose her. Sometimes she needs help and as "payment" for that help she promised the abbott of the Grand Monastery one of her children. And so the twins Mokoya and Akeha are born. This novella is the story of their life.

It is also a story about prophecy (likely self-fulfilling) versus free-will, personal choices in a world where gender is fluid (everyone is genderless their/they until they decide to become one or the other or remain "unconfirmed", to identify with a gender at an early age is unusual), a story of magic (the Tensor magic of the 5 natures that could do with a little more definition - I have hopes for the sequel), technology (guns, and machines, some powered by magic, some not), myth and religion.

I enjoyed this fast moving plot that covers several decades in a few short pages. The twins are compelling characters and the world described is sprawling and full of potential. Akeha's personal quest for freedom intersects with the larger issues of the empire in a way that made it hard to put down the book.

I'll definitely read the sequel because this world is only hinted at and yet already fascinating.